


Open To Persuasion

by Beckymonster



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-11
Updated: 2011-12-11
Packaged: 2017-10-27 05:16:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/291992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beckymonster/pseuds/Beckymonster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gibbs is in love with his ME. He also doesn't think he has a chance. Certain FBI personnel suggest otherwise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Open To Persuasion

**Author's Note:**

> Episode tag for 'Tribes' (Spoilers for Season 5)

Gibbs noticed the redhead as soon as he walked out of the elevator. A little too short and curvy for his tastes but good looking enough to merit a second glance. He turned his attention back to the job at hand - bringing Fornell (and Homeland Security) up to speed on the Bakr case. Their conversation in the elevator had been about the aspects of the case that would be left resolutely off the record. Such as how they had stumbled across the breakthrough that helped solve the murders.

It was as Gibbs was walking to his desk that he saw her again. This time she was smiling widely at Ducky Mallard, who was standing in the center of the aisle between desks, his arms open to embrace her, a wide smile on his face.

Gibbs’ gut roiled as he watched his old friend greet the newcomer. In all the time Gibbs had known Ducky, he knew that the older man had always been a success with the ladies; even the homicidal ones. Gibbs knew why his gut was having its say, it didn't mean he was going to act on it.

The team watched the scene before them with varying expressions of “who are you and why are you hugging our ME like that?” Not surprising, Ducky wasn’t one for physical displays of public affection.

“Jethro?” Fornell asked at his elbow. Gibbs didn’t turn around to know that the usual scowl that made up his good friend’s expression was just that little bit deeper than ever. He kept his attention on Ducky and the woman he had just hugged. Fornell could read him quicker than nearly anyone else could; this was his problem, no one else's.

“Tobias?” Gibbs replied, keeping his voice as neutral as possible; nothing for anyone to see. He had just had the realization that the love he had for Ducky would never be reciprocated.

"Sapphire, good to see you," Fornell said, greeting the newcomer.

"Likewise Tobias," she replied; a definite Texan lilt to her voice. "Good to get out of the Hoover Building basement from time to time."

"Away from Mulder and the X-Files?" DiNozzo teased lightly, smiling up at her from his desk.

"More like the morgue, DiNotzo," Fornell said, ignoring the crack and the soft reply of 'Like I've never heard that gag before!' "Doctor Sapphire Hammond is my team's ME. I've asked that she observe Ducky’s autopsy on Straiger."

Gibbs glanced between Fornell and Ducky, eyebrows raised. In most cases, one ME (usually from the agency holding the body) did the autopsy and the other agencies involved in the case, counted themselves lucky to see the reports. Brought a whole new meaning to habeus corpus.

“Sapphire is a former student of mine, Jethro,” Ducky commented airily, not meeting Gibbs’ questioning eyes. “The FBI will want a full report, as will Homeland Security and with Mr Palmer having to attend to his studies, I thought it best to invite Doctor Hammond to attend me.”

Gibbs said nothing; he was sure that Ducky wasn’t being entirely truthful but wasn’t going to call his old friend out in front of everyone. He wasn’t that much of a bastard.

“The Director has cleared it, Jethro.” Ducky commented, as if that made a whit of difference. Gibbs grunted his assent, not that it was necessary as Jenny had gone over his head, but he could play nice, sometimes.

“We should have the autopsy complete by close of business today, gentlemen.” Ducky noted, “The bloodwork will take longer, even with Abby performing her usual magic, so a full report will have to wait until the morning.”

Gibbs nodded. As far as he was concerned, the case was closed. They had the killer of the three Marines on a slab in Autopsy, said dead body's accomplices were busy cutting deals (or not) with the DA’s office or headed to Gitmo This was just tying up the loose ends.

“Appreciated, Ducky.” Fornell replied.

Both Ducky and Hammond turned away to leave when Hammond turned back.

“Oh, Tobias!” she said “Message from Ron. He won’t be able to make the showing tonight.”

Fornell’s scowl, impossibly, grew deeper. “He say why?” he asked, annoyance in his tone.

Hammond shrugged. “He was real apologetic, said that he’d been looking forward to going to see ‘Enchanted’ with Emily, you and I tonight, but and I quote- ‘He got an offer he couldn’t refuse.’”

Fornell sighed softly. “Emily is not going to like it but he can be the one to explain it to her, next time he sees her.”

“Harsh, Tobias, harsh,” Hammond muttered as she walked away. Gibbs didn’t fail to notice the guiding hand Ducky rested on the small of her back as he watched the pair leave the Bullpen, chatting animatedly as they walked away.

So he was sort of in love with Ducky. Nothing wrong with that at all; apart from Ducky flirted with the ladies, not with guys and never with him. Not that Gibbs would ever say anything. Besides, even if Ducky did know – how could he compete with a pretty young redhead like Hammond?

Gibbs caught Fornell’s eye as he turned back to the job in hand. “You’re not the only one who’s too close to his team, Jethro,” Fornell muttered softly as he glanced out of the Bullpen’s bay window.

Gibbs glanced at his old friend and saw... more than he expected to see. He turned his attention to the file in his hands, pushing all personal feelings to one side.

***

"-Emily's tastes run more to Hannah Montana rather than Hitchcock right now," Fornell commented as Gibbs and he entered the elevator just outside Forensics. "After the Paulson case was re-opened, both Hammond and Sacks turned up one day when I was taking Emily to the movies and...".

Gibbs nodded; he heard every word that Tobias wasn't saying. '"Do I want to know who Hannah Montana is?" he asked, semi-jokingly as the elevator doors closed and he hit the button for Autopsy.

Fornell shot him a look. "No, Jethro, you don't!" he added fervently. "Little girls that age have very 'interesting' tastes when it comes to music"

"I know, Tobias, I know," Gibbs commented, feeling the usual mix of sadness and joy at having Kelly in his life for such a short time.

Fornell cussed quietly. "I was out of line-"

Gibbs shook his head. "Going senile, sure, but not out of line," he added with a small smile.

"Cute, Gibbs, cute" Fornell snorted as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened.

"Thought so," Gibbs replied as he walked out of the elevator, looking through the Autopsy windows as he did so.

Ducky and Doctor Sapphire Hammond stood in line of sight of the Autopsy doors, still in scrubs; kissing before Gibbs' surprised and yes, he was man enough to admit it, jealous gaze.

“Gibbs! What the-“ Fornell grouched as he walked straight into Gibbs outstretched arm. “Oh,” was his comment as he glanced past Gibbs, through the Autopsy windows to see what had made Gibbs stop so suddenly.

Though the doors, Gibbs watched Sapphire raise her hands to run them through Ducky's thick, blond hair. Just like Gibbs foolishly wanted to. Ruthlessly he also quashed the envy he felt at watching Ducky's beautiful hands slide, carefully, down the young woman's back to rest on her bottom. It was a hard fought battle and envy was a wily foe.

"Gibbs!" Fornell barked. "Jethro..." he said, quieter this time, placing a hand on Gibbs' arm. "Your usual office."

Gibbs tore his eyes away and nodded silently, leading the way back to the elevator. Both men piled in without a word. It was only as Gibbs hit the button for the Bullpen that it occurred to him that his old friend looked agitated about 'something'.

Fornell beat Gibbs to the emergency brake, turning on him with an angry look in his eye.

“What the hell do you think you’re playing at, Jethro?” Fornell hissed, stepping closer to Gibbs.

Gibbs stared at Fornell in real confusion. "If I knew what you were talking about Fornell, I’d be able to tell you,” he replied, playing for time; it couldn’t hurt, might even help him find out what Fornell was getting at.

“You’re jealous of Ducky-” Fornell began before Gibbs sputtered indignantly.

“Like hell I am!” he growled; which was true enough but he wasn’t going to tell Tobias that.

“Is that so?” Fornell ground out, crossing his arms over his chest. “Then why did you have that same look you always had on your face whenever you saw me with Diane?”

Gibbs said nothing and glared at Fornell from one side of the elevator car. The FBI agent had him to rights, but he couldn’t exactly tell him the truth. He *was* jealous. Just not of the person that Fornell was thinking of.

“Not jealousy,” Gibbs noted. “That was me thinking you were an idiot for not listening to my advice.”

“Well, I like to make my own mistakes,” Fornell shot back. “Only way to learn sometimes.” He straightened up, frowning at Gibbs. “Don’t change the subject either.”

“Wasn’t going to, Tobias,” Gibbs noted as placidly as possible. ‘She’s a beautiful woman and all that-” He mentally added that Tobias seemed to be quite taken with her and people in glasshouses shouldn’t throw stones. “But I’m not interested.”

The incredulous look on Fornell’s face told Gibbs that his old friend didn’t believe him for one moment. Gibbs couldn’t honestly blame him. Hell, it even sounded wrong to his ears and he knew that it was the gospel truth.  
Sapphire Hammond was a beautiful woman, perhaps a year ago things could have been a lot different but... she wasn’t Ducky.

“Despite what you might think, Jethro, you are an easy person to read sometimes. You were jealous of someone in that room. Someone ...” Fornell drawled slowly.

Gibbs met the other mans gaze head on. He knew that tone of voice all too well. It was the same tone he’d heard Fornell use on suspects just before he ensnared them in their own guilt. It was one thing to hear it used on a dirtbag, but something entirely different to be used on him. Gibbs did the only thing he could. Stood there, leant against the car wall and waited for the inevitable.

It took a hell of a lot to surprise Tobias Fornell, but Gibbs did it with ease.

“You were jealous of Sapphire?!” Fornell asked incredulously.

Gibbs nodded, as a small smile appeared on his face. He was amused as much at himself for getting into this situation as he was at his old friend’s reaction.

“I was jealous of Hammond,” he confirmed laconically. The admission lifted his spirits somewhat; perhaps confession was good for the soul after all, regardless of how little good Gibbs knew it would do him.

Fornell said nothing; simply slid his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out a hip flask. Tobias opened it up, took a swig, and wiped the cap before handing it silently over to Gibbs. Jethro took the proffered flask with a nod of thanks.

“I always knew you played your cards close to your vest, Jethro.” Fornell began with a sigh “But this one beats them all.”

Gibbs shrugged his shoulders and took a swig from the flask; the whiskey was smoother than he was used to but it had the same burn that he needed right then.

“Hell, should I even be asking?” Fornell asked as he accepted the flask back from Gibbs.

Gibbs offered up a wan smile. “I don’t think that they’d really care Tobias. It’s not like I’d get a chance to flaunt it anyway.”

“You haven’t spoken to Ducky about-”

Gibbs shot him the look he saved for when he was dealing with complete idiots. “After what we just witnessed in Autopsy, Tobias?” he asked angrily.

Fornell tried to look contrite; it didn’t suit him. “You have a point there,” he conceded.

“Damn right I do,” Gibbs huffed. “Don’t you have a movie to catch?” he asked. Gibbs wanted the conversation over. There was nothing that Tobias could say that would make things better.  
Fornell nodded silently as he leant over to hit the brake switch. The elevator smoothly continued its journey.

Just as the elevator doors were about to open at the Bullpen, Fornell hit the brake again.

“Just for the record, Jethro,” he began, not looking at his friend. “If you need to talk....”

Gibbs nodded before releasing the brake. Fornell was a damn good friend but it was his problem. No one else’s.

***

The empty bourbon bottle was a solid weight in Gibbs’ hand. He regarded it for a moment before placing it on the workbench.  
He looked over at the nearly complete boat: thought about the little jobs that needed to be done. The kind that required no real thought on his part and would tire him out enough to sleep.

The restlessness had been with him from the moment Gibbs had left the Navy Yard. Unfortunately that coping strategy, along with all of his others (working on the boat, drowning his sorrows with Jim Beam) wasn’t working for him at all.  
He could not get what he had seen in Autopsy out of his head. If it had been anyone else, he would have simply ignored the issue and hoped like hell it would go away.  
Except this wasn’t just ‘anyone else’, this was Ducky. The man who understood him better than he did himself sometimes. The man who was unafraid of him. The man who would kick his ass when necessary.  
The man he loved.

Gibbs wasn’t one for introspection. He knew his own heart and he knew that what he felt would never be reciprocated. So what was the point in wishing things could be different?  
If that were the case, he’d still have a wife and daughter and Catlin Todd would still be alive. It was a waste of time and effort.

Instead Gibbs picked up his cellphone and the empty bourbon bottle. Tomorrow he would go into work, perhaps a little more cranky than usual (not that anyone would notice) and carry on as normal. First order of business, obtaining the Straiger autopsy report from Ducky and Hammond.  
As for the rest of the evening, he would let himself think about what could have been for a few short hours... before locking those thoughts away for good. Something that called for more bourbon. Which in turn meant a bracing walk down to the liquor store two blocks away. He decided to leave the car, the walk would do him good.

It came as a surprise to Gibbs, as he threw the empty bottle into the recycling crate, to see Ducky locking up the Morgan just outside his house.

“Hey, Duck,” he called out. “Isn’t it a little late for house calls?” He shoved his keys and cell into his coat pockets and walked down the stairs to greet the other man.

Ducky started a little at Gibbs’ hail, fumbling with the Morgan’s keys. They rattled loudly in the quiet suburban street.

“Indeed it is,” the older man replied as he moved slowly away from the car and onto the sidewalk, towards Gibbs.

“Is everything okay with your mom?” Gibbs asked, concern bleeding into his voice. If Ducky was out this late, there had to be a reason. What?

“My mother is at her Bridge night, tonight, Jethro. Do not trouble yourself, she is quite well,” Ducky commented. “I will pass on that you asked about her.”

Gibbs stared at the other man, trying to get a bead on what was going on. Ducky looked unperturbed by the scrutiny; wearing his customary Macintosh and trilby, looking to all the world as if it was perfectly normal to turn up on a good friends doorstep at a late hour.

“Why are you here, Ducky?” Gibbs asked. It was late and he _really_ needed some quality time with a bottle of bourbon.

“I never told you the full story about Bosnia in 1993,” Ducky began, slipping gracefully into story mode. Gibbs repressed a sigh, Ducky would get to the point eventually. Who knew, he might even tell Gibbs why he was there.

“I did not tell you that my assistant at the time, Sapphire Hammond, also accompanied me on that taskforce. She did not have to go, for that matter neither did I, but a sense of duty propelled us both.”

Gibbs watched the memories play out over his old friend’s face. He felt remorse at what he had pushed Ducky to earlier in the day. Even so, it had been necessary, not just for Bakr but for the other Muslim Marines who had been murdered for honoring what they believed in.

Ducky sighed, sounding loud to Gibbs’ hearing in the quiet street. “Sapphire was approaching the end of her tenure at NCIS. She had already mentioned sending a resume to the FBI but wanted to wait until after the task force was concluded.” Ducky looked up at Gibbs. “In our professional circles, having experience of such disasters is actually very useful, I am afraid to say.”

“I have already disclosed the details of my work for the task force,” Ducky commented. “What I did not tell you, as it had no bearing on the case in hand, was what happened after our work was done.”

Ducky turned quietly away from Gibbs, looking up into the inky night sky as he did so. Gibbs stood patiently, waiting for Ducky to continue on with his story.  
Despite what many thought, Ducky’s stories always had a point. It might take a while to arrive at but it was there.

“As you can well imagine, what we both endured took its toll on both of us.” Ducky resumed his tale. “To help us both recover, Hammond and I took leave in Paris for a week.” Ducky paused before he continued with his story. “It was there that Sapphire and I became lovers.”

Gibbs said nothing. He’d been there himself and the last thing that Ducky would have wanted or needed was him commenting on little details like the mentor/student relationship, not to mention the age difference. He was a bastard but he wasn’t a hypocrite.

“It was as passionate as it was short-lived,” Ducky commented, with the same level of emotion that he would use to comment on the weather. “It was what we both needed to negate the terrible events in Bosnia. It is the one happy memory I have of that dark time.”

“So, what happened?” Gibbs asked quietly. He surmised that Ducky must have known that he had seen what happened in Autopsy. It wasn’t his business other than he wished his dear friend all happiness. Ducky deserved to be loved by someone worthy of him; unfortunately it ruled Gibbs right out.

“A number of things. We returned to what passes for normal life at NCIS.” Ducky noted with a shrug of his shoulders. “Sapphire finally submitted her resume to the FBI and was rapidly hired by Tobias. We both knew that after Paris that matters could not go back to the way they were before; so we ended it." Gibbs saw the trace of a smile on his friend’s face. "It would have been sheer vanity on my part to think that I could be anything more than a good friend to her in the long run. She needed to move on with her career, her life.”

Ducky turned back to Gibbs. “She wasn’t the only one who moved on. Soon after our return to NCIS, I started working with a new, upcoming agent. Many called him a bastard, because he had no time for niceties like agency politics. In his defense, mind, he got the job done-”

“Think I’ve met him, Duck,” Gibbs noted with a slight smile.

“He became a damn good friend. Then something... unexpected happened.” Ducky paused before continuing. If Gibbs didn’t know any better, he would have said that his old friend was agitated.

“I fell in love with him.” Ducky whispered, not meeting Gibbs’ inquiring gaze.

“Oh” Gibbs uttered. It just went to show that when he thought that he had heard and seen it all, someone proved him wrong. Not that Gibbs minded, kept him on his toes.

The obvious response would have been for Gibbs to declare his love but that wasn’t his style. Instead he took a step into Ducky’s persona space and reached out to take Ducky’s hand into his own.

“Oh!” Ducky exclaimed softly as Gibbs gently squeezed his hand, rubbing his thumb over Ducky’s knuckles and fingers. The words were in Gibbs’ heart, waiting to be said, yet it felt right to just hold Ducky’s hand. Especially when Ducky softly squeezed back.

“So... you want to tell me what was going on in Autopsy late this afternoon?” Gibbs asked quietly, looking down at their intertwined hands.

Ducky looked away, contrite. "It was an old friend giving me a push to do something that I've meaning to do for a very, very long time," he murmured, not meeting Gibbs' gaze.

“I’m glad she did.” Gibbs whispered into the other man's ear.


End file.
